THE TROUBLES OF MRS TURNER. AN INNOCENT LADY BLACKMAILED BY A PLAUSIBLE SCOUNDREL. Dangers of Outraging the Covenances.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 248, 21 March 1888, Page 5

THE TROUBLES OF MRS TURNER. AN INNOCENT LADY BLACKMAILED BY A PLAUSIBLE SCOUNDREL. Dangers of Outraging the Covenances.

London, January 23. Married ladies who chafe against the restraints of the convenances, and wonder why it is suppoM'd to be dangerous 10 indulge in even a platonic aflection for members of the opposite sex, would do well to .study attenthely the stoiy of poor Mrs Turner, who cut such a lamentable figure at the Central Criminal Court last week. Mrs Turner is a handsome young matron ot about 60, married to a wealthy city man, blessed with two children, and resident at a substantial villa in Regents Park. She ought to havo been a happy and a busy lonian, and so sho would ha\o been but for two ia^hionablo -cia/es. Mrs Turner is aesthetic, and Mrs Turner is ultrahigh church. Her luu-band did not approve vof either phases, but seems, from all one can gather, to lhave shown much goodTutturtd toleration. Mrs Taylor, however, believed herself misunderstood and unappreciated. She hungered for sympathy, and longed for harmonious, intellectual communion with a kindred soul. Parsons usually fill this sort of void one way or another, but Mrs Taylor docs not seem to havo been fartunate in her clergy. Highchurch clergy for one thing are too hardworked, and too terribly in earnest to waste time '"fiddle-faddling " with sentimental women. Nevertheless, a consoler did turn up, and in the person of a highly attractive young man too. Mr Harry Graham was the principal tenor in the choir at All Saint's Cavendish Square, the church which Mrs Turner affected. He was not quite a gentleman from all I can gather (or Mrs Turner would certainly have introduced him at home) but he had the appearance of a Belgravian Apollo, and the voice of an angel. An accident effected an introduction between the pair and acquaintanceship fast ripened into friendship. There is nothing a woman of Mrs Turner's age and temperament likes better than the respectful admiration and affection of a lad of 20. Mr Graham, 'tis true, was a good <leal more than 20, but he looked about that age, and passed as quite a youngster. Mrs Turner frequently expressed marked admiration for Mr Graham's voice, and wished that she could hear him sing secular music. It consequently seemed quite natural that he should propose meeting her at some respectable music rooms in Oxfordstreet for the latter purpose. In some ways, perhaps, the proposition was not strictly convenable. The rooms were thoroughly well-known, and constantly used for this very purpose. Still, Mrs Turner should undoubtedly have taken a chaperone with her. Owing, however (she said afterwards), to Graham's being so much younger than herself, and, besides, not a social equal, she never thought of it. The first musical afternoon in Oxfordstreet passed off so pleasantly that another wa3 proposed, and soon meetings of the kind became of weekly occurrence. That they were quite harmless— in fact and in reality no one who heard Mrs Turner's evidence" could doubt music and .-esthetic conversation formed the entire entertainment. This went on for twelve months. j Mr Graham was not, however, wasting I his time. The game he designed to play may be summed up in two words — blackmail. It would not, however, do to be precipitate. Mrs Turner must be thoroughly compromised first. Ho consequently gave her an address at Plumstead, fco which she sent him many letters. Hers usually began " Dear Harry," his " Dearest Lily." The contents were invariably lesthefcic gush. Six months had passed when Graham whose real name by the way is Weir) showed the cloven hoof by asking Mis Turner to pay for the use of the room at which they met. She sent him £3 for this, and his next allegation was that he had got into trouble by endorsing a bill for a friend. To meet thi3 she gave Graham £25. The remainder of the story I will quote from the " Daily Telegraph." Mrs Turner was by this time thoroughly compromised, and Campbell (or Weir as we must now call him) commenced to unmask, and play upon Ilia dupe'f fears. " Emboldened by the money which he had already extorted from Mrs Turner, his next step was to demand thirty pounds more from her on the ground that some man whose name was not mentioned had seen the young wife repairing to Newman-street, week after week, to meet an unmarried man of herown age without her husband's knowledge. Upon such clandestine interviews the unknown spy, by this concocted story, had naturally put the worst construction, and, according to Weir, demanded hush - money for the quality parties. Mrs Turner asked Weir whether he had paid anything to this inconvenient interloper, and was told th<3% Weir had exhausted his own vesoui ces in attempting to bribe the other to silence. He added that unless the lady found an additional sum of thirty pounds within the week the scandal would be out, and the conduct of the wife during the last two or three years would be revealed to her husband. Fortunately Mrs Turner refused to find this additional sum, but, de«pite the fact that Weir's character ought now to have been made plain to her, she seems to have followed him down to a church in Bayawater, to which he had removed from All Saints' Cavendis.h-&quare, and allowed him once more to speak to her as she w&s leaAing the building. Again also she consented to meet him three times in Newmanstreet, but finding the room uncomfortable, on the ground that there were in it eight pianos and but one chair, she was persuaded by Weir to give him rendezvous at an hotel in the neighbourhocd of London Bridge. To this hotel she went three times, but on each occasion there was a third person in tho room with Weir and her. Here the fellow resumed his molestations and importunities by asking Mrs Turner for sixty pounds, without which the spy who had observed their movements could not leave England. It was represented that this fictitious moralist who had watched them in Newman -street-, had also dogged them to London Bridge, and entertained, of course, the worst opinions as to Mrs Turner's character One scarcely knows whether to wonder moro at the mci edible meaness of the rascal who was thus abusing the confidence of his companion, or at her folly in continuing to believe in him. She did not deny that she had destroyed all Weir's letters, and had asked him to destroy hers ; that she bad twice been with him to a theatre, once alone, and once in company •with a female cousin, , whom, as well as Weir, she took to the Lyceum in her carriage ; that Weir had once visited her at Priory Road, in the absence of her husband ; bub affirmed that she had attached very little importance to the insinuation which Weir alleged that the unknown spy was about to level at her. Conscious —it was put forward —of her •own innocence. Mrs Turner seems to have trusted Weir as a man of honour, whose voice sho admired and whose company she found agreeable. On behalf of the prisoner it was contended that the letters had been

written by a prisoner who had become acquainted with the meetings between the accused and the propecutrix.—- The jury found the prisoner "Guilty," but recommended him to mercy on account of his youth.— He was sentencod to 12 months' imprisonment. — The prisoner exclaimed, u 1 thank you." By their verdict tho jury must not bo thought to have dismissed Mrs Turner from court without tho slighest reflection ot the correctness of her conduct ; what they branded was tho abominable behaviour of the prisoner to a vtry foolish woman. Whatever may be thought of M>*s Turner, it will, 1 think, bo conceded thut she has been severely punished. Her trouble will hoc, however, be without its usefulness if it restrains young women from outraging let convenances, which, tiresome though they may seem, me >ct founded on reason, commonsense, and an accurate knowledgeof " poor humanity."